The present invention comprises a new and distinct variety of hybrid garden phlox botanically known as Phlox hybrid, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Opening Act Blush’. The new variety originated from a crossing made by the inventor on Sep. 1, 2011 at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA between the female parent Phlox ‘Minnie Pearl’ (not patented) and the male parent Phlox paniculata ‘Barsixtytwo’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,234 with seed harvested Oct. 6, 2011. ‘Minnie Pearl’ is an interspecific cross between Phlox maculata and Phlox glaberrima. The new plant was selected from among a large population of as a single individually developed seedling and then separately designated under the breeder code H11-98-56 with final evaluations approved in the summer of 2013.
Phlox ‘Opening Act Blush’ has been asexually propagated by stem cuttings at the same nursery in Zeeland, Mich. The unique characteristics of the new plant have been found to be reproducible and stable in successive generations of asexual propagation and the resultant plants have been found to be identical to the original selection. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations via vegetative cuttings.
Phlox ‘Opening Act Blush’ has not been made publically available or sold anywhere in the world under any name more than one year prior to the filing of this application. Any public disclosure or sale has been by the inventor or one who obtained the material either directly or indirectly from the inventor, and any such disclosure has not been made more than one year prior to the application of this invention.